I hate the delica!

B

bladedude92

Joined
May 13, 2010
Messages
217
I have had two delicas in the past 4 years, one sabre and one flat ground. I have took the flat one apart to clean out water from the liners and when I put it back together all sorts of blade play and other problems happened. I love the design but user maintenance sucks on this knife. I might buy the ffg orange delica and just never take it apart but I think Spyderco needs to make the serviceability better one the delica IMHO. Love all my other Spydercos and will continue to be a customer. What do you guys think about the delica?
 
bladedude92 said:
I have had two delicas in the past 4 years, one sabre and one flat ground. I have took the flat one apart to clean out water from the liners and when I put it back together all sorts of blade play and other problems happened. I love the design but user maintenance sucks on this knife. I might buy the ffg orange delica and just never take it apart but I think Spyderco needs to make the serviceability better one the delica IMHO. Love all my other Spydercos and will continue to be a customer. What do you guys think about the delica?
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Sounds like user error to me, plain and simple. It's been said literally thousands of times, but you are not supposed to take the knife apart. Another aspect of "serviceability" is that the knife can be easily cleaned with warm soapy water, and dried with canned/compressed air. Oh well, live and learn;)
 
When u mention that u've dismantled ur knife, many people will tell u not to instead. But since u have already took everything apart...
Try taking everything out and screw ever handle screw back, except for the The blade goes in last, together with the washers. Once the washers and the pivot hole of the blade are aligned, push the handle pivot in and screw it. There should not be any blade play after it.
This is for delica 4. If u're using a 3, sorry i got no idea :D
 
I kinda want the option to swap blade though. slate grey se, orange waved, black ffg, foliage green ffg, purple ce. actually i guess what i want is to be able to pick from all of the available handle colors. and the hollow ground from the ss on a frn handle. or just upgrading the saber grind to hollow.

but then again i always seem to expect a lot from spyderco
 
I've taken both my Endura and Delica apart, to clean them after having used them to cut meat. There were small chunks of meat stuck everywhere, so they were in need of a good clean.

Taking them apart was no big deal and putting them back together was easy. My knives are just ad tight and smooth, ad they were from new. Sounds like you did something wrong, cause they can't be ruined by doing it correctly.
 
Yeah, I've taken mine apart as well without any problems. If your only problem is after taking it apart...
 
The Delica and Endura are made to be taken apart. I have heard in several forums that the delica and the endura are still under warranty after being taken apart.
 
Murdamook said:
The Delica and Endura are made to be taken apart. I have heard in several forums that the delica and the endura are still under warranty after being taken apart.
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Nope, IIRC, warranty does not cover the knives once they are dismantled. Having said that, I have taken all my enduras apart and have managed to put them back together with no problems. I'm not too concerned about warranty though, since shipping for me will cost almost as much as a new one.
 
I hate people that hate the delica :D kidding :p But yeah, if used and maintained properly, the delica will do its job very well, for MANY MANY years, no disassembly required :thumbup:
 
The Delica is not advertised as being easy to disassemble. In fact they void your warranty if you do so. I can't imagine they will change the design if they can make the knife quickly. Not everyone is handy and should be taking things apart. People not being able to put knives back together is probably why they started voiding warranties.
 
The reason Spyderco began selling endura4/delica4 parts kits wasn't because they wanted users to take them apart, but because people kept mucking things up when they attempted reassembly on a knife that is not intended to be user serviceable. Many people have taken delicas and enduras down and put them back together with no problem. There are even videos on how to do it. It's your knife and you may do as you wish with it, but it is not the manufacturers fault that one is unable to put a non-user serviceable knife back together the same way he took it apart. good luck.
 
I've never had a problem with a Delica; well, that's not entirely true - I have had issues with the clip breaking & screw threads stripping... I've owned about 6 of them (still own a SE Delica) and it's not my favorite knife... I'm not really a huge fan of FRN, albeit is very durable. I did, however, love my blue (I think it was blue), straight up ZDP (not layered, although I really liked that one too) Delica.
 
It probably is me being stupid when putting it back together but getting the spring in the backspacer is probably the problem. When I get a new one I will never take it apart but that may not be for awhile. Thanks for all the comments.
Matt
 
Check out the assembly videos on YouTube and you may be able to get things right. One of the big things is to make sure you don't crush the plastic 'nubs' on the back spacer than lock into the liners.
 
The most common mistake to make when reassembling the Delica and Endura is to put all the innards on one scale, and then close it up with the other scale. This doesn't work. The reason for this is that the plastic backspacer has a notch on each side that goes into a little hole in the liners. For these notches to go into the liners, there must be 0 tension, i.e. the blade and spring must not be in at the same time with only one scale present.

The following gets me good results (and I just happened to do this last weekend for the first time in a while; blasting with water + adding oil gets the job done most of the time) :

1. Put the liner into the face scale (the scale that's on the same side as the logo side of the blade.
2. Put all of the D-bolts onto the face scale, except for the lock bar's D-bolt.
3. Put the backspacer in.
4. Put the blade in with its washers (oil as needed.)
5. Put the spring into place.
6. Put the back liner and scale in.
7. Screw everything shut, except don't screw the pivot in all the way.

Now for the tricky part:

8. Making sure that the blade is held at about the "open" position, place the lockbar's D-bolt into the face scale so that it does NOT protrude passed the scale and liner (so that it does not reach "into" the body of the knife.)
9. Insert the lockbar until its hole is lined up with the D-bolt's slot.
10. Assuming you have kept everything low and near the table, use the table to push the D-bolt all the way through.

And then go ahead and attach your clip and tighten the pivot to your liking.

A few tightening tips:
1. Just get the lockbar's pivot so that it's firm. Overtightening this particular torx screw can cause your Delica to not feel right when opening and closing.
2. You might like to tighten the pivot a little bit, check for play, tighten again, and do this together with the pivot screw until you find the right balance between the two.

I hope this helps.
 
THG said:
The most common mistake to make when reassembling the Delica and Endura is to put all the innards on one scale, and then close it up with the other scale. This doesn't work. The reason for this is that the plastic backspacer has a notch on each side that goes into a little hole in the liners. For these notches to go into the liners, there must be 0 tension, i.e. the blade and spring must not be in at the same time with only one scale present.

The following gets me good results (and I just happened to do this last weekend for the first time in a while; blasting with water + adding oil gets the job done most of the time) :

1. Put the liner into the face scale (the scale that's on the same side as the logo side of the blade.
2. Put all of the D-bolts onto the face scale, except for the lock bar's D-bolt.
3. Put the backspacer in.
4. Put the blade in with its washers (oil as needed.)
5. Put the spring into place.
6. Put the back liner and scale in.
7. Screw everything shut, except don't screw the pivot in all the way.

Now for the tricky part:

8. Making sure that the blade is held at about the "open" position, place the lockbar's D-bolt into the face scale so that it does NOT protrude passed the scale and liner (so that it does not reach "into" the body of the knife.)
9. Insert the lockbar until its hole is lined up with the D-bolt's slot.
10. Assuming you have kept everything low and near the table, use the table to push the D-bolt all the way through.

And then go ahead and attach your clip and tighten the pivot to your liking.

A few tightening tips:
1. Just get the lockbar's pivot so that it's firm. Overtightening this particular torx screw can cause your Delica to not feel right when opening and closing.
2. You might like to tighten the pivot a little bit, check for play, tighten again, and do this together with the pivot screw until you find the right balance between the two.

I hope this helps.
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Thanks for this info! I will give this a try.
 
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